“Three generations of white South African men were bound together at that table. Vermuelen was the first generation. He defined Africa, made it safe for Basson to defile. I was the last generation, the last to grow up in segregated neighborhoods. Between us was the silent photograph of Wouter Basson. Like a distant father, Basson was absent at the dining table.” – Henk Rossouw (Hole in the White ‘Hood). Also Mahmood Mamdani on Bantu Education at UCT, Gael Reagon on sisterhood, Binyavanga Wainaina on dis-covering Kenya, Gaston Zossou on African intellectuals and more…
Cover:
Strange Fruit by Lewis Allen
Botsotso 20: The Dramas of Life (Botsotso, 2019)
Botsotso 20: Drama. The Dramas of Life is an anthology of eight South African plays drawn from the last decade (2008 -18) and engages with personal dilemmas and social realities.
The themes reflect the general unravelling of the 1994 political settlement as racism, poverty and inequality, patriarchy, violence against women and LGBT people, the failure to provide quality education and high levels of corruption, expose widening fault lines. They display great energy and dramatic virtuosity in their exploration of these and other themes and create vivid characters who transcend the rhetorical.
The plays included are “Isithunzi” by Sipho Zakwe; “Sleeping Dogs” by Simphiwe Vikilahle; “The Good Candidate” by Hans Pienaar; “Shoes and Coups” by Palesa Mazamisa; “Book Marks” by Allan Kolski Horwitz; “The Couch” by Sjaka Septembir; “Iziyalo Zikamama” by the Botsotso Ensemble and “Finding Me” by Moeketsi Kgotle.